Geneva 18/05/18 – The UN Human Rights Council’s special session on Gaza today is another example of the exploitation of UN frameworks by the Palestinians to promote their destructive policy of rejectionism, according to a statement to be presented at the Council in Geneva.

In the statement, which will be read during the plenum, NGO Monitor notes that the Council’s NGO-supported claims of Israel’s misconduct in the recent Gaza border violence are contradicted by the terror groups’ own admissions that the vast majority of casualties were combatants.

In advance of the session, NGO Monitor’s UN Liaison and Legal Advisor Anne Herzberg highlighted the misuse of UN resources for anti-Israel political warfare:

“Like the Goldstone and Schabas-Davis fiascoes before, this UNHRC session will be dominated by NGOs involved in anti-Israel demonization such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the Norwegian Refugee Council. European-funded NGOs linked to the PFLP terror will also play a disproportionate role.

If the UN is going to continue to be complicit in these destructive Palestinian initiatives, UN member states should reassess their funding of the institution and the NGOs that so eagerly play a part in it.”

Although such special sessions are to be expected from the inherently biased Human Rights Council, NGO Monitor calls on the Council’s democratic member-states, including European governments, to vote against any resolutions that single out Israel and repeat the false slogans of “unarmed protesters” and “disproportionate force.”

In her statement, Herzberg further called for donor accountability, adding that “If the UN is going to continue to be complicit in these destructive Palestinian initiatives, UN member states should reassess their funding of the institution and the NGOs that so eagerly play a part in it.”

In addition, today and tomorrow the UN Division of Palestinian Rights is also hosting a conference in New York to promote the idea that Israel’s founding is a catastrophe (“Nakba”).

NGO Monitor also formally responded to the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD)’s action on the Gaza border violence, which she said was “an issue far beyond the scope of the Committee’s mandate and competence.”